


Home Is Where The Heart Is

by HalRose



Series: The Shakarian Project [25]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Drama, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, No Shepard Without Vakarian, POV Shepard (Mass Effect), Pregnancy, Shakarian - Freeform, Shepard has time off, Shepard tries to spend time with her son, Shepard's son fears that they're going through a divorce, Wrex turns up and causes chaos, movie day, shepard pregnant with twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:54:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26733943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalRose/pseuds/HalRose
Summary: “When you love someone, you don’t just stop. Ever. Even when people roll their eyes or call you crazy… even then. Especially then!” - Commander Shepard-Vakarian has some time off to be with her son, Demus. This is what happens during that time.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Series: The Shakarian Project [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876087
Kudos: 18





	Home Is Where The Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in a discord conversation with my partner Dani, thank you so much for reading The Shakarian Project so far.  
> Me and Dani had so much fun writing this

**Athena**

Life has been pretty great in the past ten years. I’ve seen so much happen, and life has gotten better now that the Reapers are gone.  
People are finally starting to respect and treat Garrus as my equal, and when I’m not on duty, I’ll be looking after our son and Garrus will work instead.

We had planned on retiring shortly after the war ending, but that never happened as it didn’t feel right because we wanted to help the galaxy with restoration efforts so communities could thrive and colonies could return and start anew,  
I hear that Ashley is a Commander now, with James Vega serving under her. I’ve also heard that Ashley might be getting promoted to Admiral, because sadly, Admiral Steven Hackett is no longer with us, having died in his sleep, a peaceful death a few months ago.

I named my son Demus David Vakarian, David being his middle name after the man that did everything for me, was like a father to me – David Anderson.  
Everything I do is in his memory.  
I’ve never really had a home, having lived on various ships and then the Normandy for most of my life.  
But Garrus and I have our apartment on the Citadel, and Liara and Tali don’t live too far away as they moved here to be closer to us.  
We’re all very good friends.

A lot of our friends have moved on, so it’s nice that we have our little hub of those who have stuck around.

I’m off duty today, on a break. We’re still living in the same apartment that David Anderson gave to me,  
We recently found out I’m pregnant with twin girls, so of course Garrus is worrying about taking things easy and immediately took over any duties I had.

My main worry is that Demus won’t like the idea of having two sisters to look after, so I’ve set up a day where we can just watch movies in our home, just the two of us.  
Garrus is on an important call with the Council about something, I don’t exactly know what though.

My boy has just turned ten, and I’m so proud of him. My miracle baby. My son. Our son… we didn’t think it was possible to have biological children, but thanks to my cybernetics and the Genophage Cure… we have a family.

“Demus, do you wanna watch a movie with me?” I call out to him.

He’s sitting on the floor, pretending to fly a toy model of the Normandy.   
He never lets go of it, it’s his favourite toy, even though he’s been in the actual Normandy.  
He stops playing, to stand up and walk over to where I’m sitting. The model Normandy still in one of his hands.

Demus sits beside me, smiling.

“Is everything okay, Mummy?”

I smile and nod.

“Yeah of course I am, I’m with my favourite little boy.”

I ruffle the tiny amount of red hair he has on his head and then let him choose a movie on the TV.  
Demus is mostly Turian, so it was a surprise he came out with a small bit of hair, as Turians don’t have hair,

"Can we watch this one, Mummy?" Demus says, selecting what looks like an action movie about the Rachni Wars

I pause for a moment, hesitating. It’s not that I don’t want Demus to learn about the past, as we have told him bits and pieces about our line of work and all those who came before us, and he has seen what we do; but he’s never seen it on a war scale – it’s been almost eleven years since the end of the Reapers and there has been no major galaxy-scale war since and I don’t want him to be scarred by war like I have… like Garrus has.  
But he’s watching it with me, so I know he’s stronger than I sometimes think he is.

“Alright, but if your Father walks in, you’re the one that has to tell him you chose it.” I tell him and let him press the button.

He places the model Normandy on the sofa as he cuddles into me, and I wrap my arms around him.  
We’re going to be having an interesting conversation.

"That man looks like Wrex!" said Demus pointing at the main character's Commander.

I lean forward. It really does look like Wrex and I start to question my knowledge on how long Krogans can live for.  
What if that actually is Wrex?

They’d never approach him for a movie, would they?

“It does!” I exclaim, “Maybe we can ask him about it later…”

I pause for a few seconds. Is this the best time to start the conversation about the fact he’s going to have two little sisters?

“Demus, can I talk to you about something very important?”

"What is is, what’s wrong?" he asks, looking away from the screen as the movie is just exposition right now.

“You know Daddy and I love you very, very much right?” I ask him, making it sound like I’m about to announce a divorce.

"Yeah, of course" He says, sounding a little worried "I love you too."

I smile a little nervously, trying to find the right words to say and try to make him understand.

“Well… you see, when you love someone, you don’t just stop. Ever. Even when people roll their eyes or call you crazy… even then. Especially then! And the thing is, there are different types of love.” I’m still making this sound like Garrus and I are about to get divorced. “And I want you to know that it’s okay for you to love whoever you want and we want you to be happy…You understand?”

My smile turns to a frown as I get frustrated. He’s ten. He’s smart enough to get the idea of what I’m trying to say and where I’m trying to get this conversation to go.  
Meanwhile, in the background, the talking on the TV turns to yelling and I turn the TV down and I run a hand through my hair.

Demus looks at the TV briefly, distracted by the volume, and then looks back. 

"Are you telling me you're trying to have a kid?" he asks  
I let out a little bit of laughter.

“Well you see, you’re going to be getting two sisters very soon. Daddy didn’t know how to tell you so I thought that I would tell you, by setting up today.”

Demus takes a second to process this.  
And then he says 

"What are their names going to be?"

"Well we thought that you could help us out with that, you are a part of this home and family. Home is where the heart is, and it's right here, with you, and your Dad. And your sisters are going to be just as loved as you are. We're not trying to replace you." I reply, kissing his forehead.

Demus hugs me,

"I know Mum, and I love you." He holds the hug for a while and then says "Can we name one of them Normandy?"

"I would absolutely love to see you try and convince your Father with that name." I laugh harder, knowing that will not happen.

I know my husband, he will not let us name either of the twins 'Normandy'.  
Being serious though, if it wasn't for Mordin, or for any of our friends, we wouldn't be where we are now.  
We did pay tribute to David Anderson, but we've yet to really think of any girls names.

Demus looks up at me, abandoning the movie completely.

“ Do you know when they'll be born?"

" In about seven months or so. I may need to go to hospital earlier. However, this does mean that when you get home from school, I'll be here and we can do whatever you like."

I explain to him what this means and what I can't do. 

Demus currently alternates between going to school on the Citadel, or a bunch of us get together to home-school him. For example; Liara likes to teach History and Tali teaches him Maths and Science and I'm sure he likes that more than an actual school.

"Does that mean we can go to the zoo more?" He asks so innocently.

I look at him and he starts laughing. We turn the movie back to the beginning and watch what we’ve missed.  
This went better than I expected.  
I had worried he would hate us, but I was clearly worrying over nothing.

A half hour passes, and we hear some commotion outside. I instruct Demus to pause the movie and I grab a pistol – you never know what could happen. I don’t want to use it, but if I have to, I will.

“Demus, stay behind me.” I order.

Demus crouches down behind me, peeking out, towards the door

The commotion outside gets closer and closer to our door and I start to recognise who is causing most of the commotion.  
I put my gun away and tell Demus it’s okay.

Wrex walks through the apartment door without a care in the world, followed closely by Garrus.

“What the hell, Wrex?” I ask

Turns out, we’d missed the news that a Krogan was trying to make his way through the Citadel, demanding to know where I was and because the mere sight of an over-energetic Krogan sent everyone into a panic, Garrus was sent to diffuse the situation.

"Hi Uncle Wrex!" Demus says and runs up to hug him

Garrus tells me that Wrex knows about our news and Wrex reveals that he has two sons and even a daughter. And knowing that Female Krogans are being born, makes me so happy for them and the rest of the Krogans.  
The galaxy is healing.

“I thought Wrex could help us celebrate. Because he’s certainly in a good mood.” Garrus looks at me and I shake my head, smile on my face.

“Alright, I’ll get Liara, Tali, Joker and his girlfriend. But, no wrecking this apartment, Wrex. That’s an order.”

“Yes, Commander Vakarian.” Wrex replies, slapping Garrus on the shoulder, who looks like he wants to start a fight with him.

This is where I wanna be. This feels so good, to have a home, with a family that cares about me. That love me.

“Oh, Garrus? Demus wants to name one of the twins ‘Normandy’” I cross my arms, watching Wrex and Garrus react.

“Yeah, no. Over my dead body, son.” Garrus replies.


End file.
